Jenny Finora Named Head Women's Basketball Coach

MARS HILL, N.C. – Jenny Finora has been hired as the new Head Women's Basketball Coach at Mars Hill University, Athletic Director David Riggins announced today.

Riggins' stated, "Coach Finora is a great addition to the Mars Hill family. Her experience as a student-athlete and as a head coach made her our best candidate. The fact that she is familiar with the South Atlantic Conference is value added."

Finora's previous coaching stint was at South Atlantic Conference rival Coker College where she spent five years as the head coach from 2010-15. In 2010, Coach Finora inherited a program that had won only two games the previous year. Under her guidance Coker steadily increased their win totals in each of the next three seasons and made three consecutive post season appearances.  In only her second season at the helm, she guided the Cobras to an 11-6 conference mark, good enough for third place in Conference Carolinas' East Division and a berth in the Conference Tournament.  In her third year in Hartsville, she spearheaded the second best campaign in school history with an 18-11 overall record. The Cobras also boasted a 14-8 conference mark and hosted a home playoff game for the first time. Coach Finora recruited players that earned seven All-Conference selections as well as Coker's first and only All-Region player. Two of her former players continued their basketball careers playing professionally overseas.

"I would like to thank David Riggins and President Lunsford for giving me this opportunity.  I feel very fortunate to have been given the chance to continue my career at such a special place.  Mars Hill is a great fit for my family and I am excited to get started", stated Finora.

Prior to coaching at Coker, Finora played one year as a professional player and coach in Iceland. Finora played for the KR Basketball Club, while also coaching three of the KR Basketball Club's junior teams. As a player, she was a Iceland Express All-Star team selection and a member of the Powerade Cup Champions team and the Champion of Champions Cup team. As a coach in Iceland she was in charge of three junior teams, including organizing and planning practice and tournament schedules for all three teams, as well as coaching three players to become All-Star team selections.

Prior to her time in Iceland, Finora served as the assistant coach and interim head coach at the University of Alabama-Huntsville and she also has experience coaching at the high school level, as well as serving as an instructor at various camps and clinics throughout the country. She earned her bachelor's degree and her master's degree from the University of Kentucky, earning a B.A. in Health Communication in 2005 and a M.S. in Kinesiology and Health Promotion in 2007. A four-year member of the Wildcats women's basketball team, Jenny was a team captain, helping lead her team to the third round of the NIT in 2007 and the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2006. She holds the record for free throw shooting percentage (86.0), while ranking third all-time in three pointers (162) in her career at UK.

Finora inherits a Lion team that earned a No. 4 seed in this year's South Atlantic Conference Women's Basketball Championship. Though picked to finish eighth in the preseason poll, the Lions finished the 2015-16 regular season at 14-8 in league play to go along with a 15-13 overall mark.

A native of North Vernon, Indiana, Finora is married to Mars Hill Men's Basketball Assistant Coach Vic Finora. The couple resides in Mars Hill with their two children; a son Emjay age four and a one-year old daughter, Grace.